Ludum Dare #30compo
You Are Bactera
About
It's a connection between the player, the cellular automaton Conway's Game of Life and a world of a simple bacteria.
Don't know what the Game of Life is?
Read about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life
== This is a zero-player game. This is not a causal game for kids, it's casual game for geeks :) ==
Rules:
* Each bacterium has it's own "brain".
* The brain is a simple simulation of Conway's Game of Life
* Player can modify it by adding active cells. Player can add 10 cells at the beginning. Each 10 game cycles is given another cell.
* In the brain if active cells extends 45% the bacterium will multiply - new bacterium will show.
* If the brain has no active cells bacterium dies.
* The "movement" of cells in brain cause movement of the bacterium. So if there is no movement the bacterium will stand still.
Have fun :)
Tools used:
- Pyxel Edit- SublimeText
- GitHub (more like service not tool)
More games: http://p1x.in
Follow me @w84death
<3 Make indie games not war!
Comments48
Not too sure how to win, if there is a way but the idea and the idea behind the AI is great and so original. Love it.
One thing worth saying, though, since it was annoying me - "bacterium" is the singular of "bacteria". One bacterium, two bacteria. Not "a bacteria", not "bacterias". (Sorry for being a pedant!)
The graphics suit the gameplay very well.
Quick to pick up and play.
The sounds are simple but fit perfectly.
And the graphics, same there.
Some notes: When placing cells in a brain, I wish the spot I'm pointing at would be highlighted, because sometimes I was sure I'd place a cell in one spot only to have the cell end up next to it instead.
And maybe newly placed cells should be allowed to be removed (consider them 'committed' after one turn/only while paused) in case you misclick or change your mind.
Overall though, 4/5.
Steve: you're right! I will add this feature for misclick (after the compo)
Thanks You all for the kind words. I was afraid that no one will understand how this game works :)
You MUST known what the Conway's Game of Life is. This is not a causal game for kids, it's casual game for geeks :D
But You can think of it as You are the next layer. It all the bacterias dies You will loose. You must take care of them to maintain alive.
-The tutorial is good but too long and extensive.
-The play/pause button is inverted, which is mildly irritating.
-Sometimes, it gets stuck or repetitive quite fast.
-The font is not pixelated.
-Reading the title I assume you chose the plural form of "bacterium" on purpose to tell me that I'm not alone, now I'm slightly creeped out.
With the font it's the same story: to little time, I don't have the engine for pixel art text - this is in my to do list for this game engine (it will be used in some other hackathon games)
Overall thanks for criticism. I would like to change all of this after the judging is done.
p.s. Yes, the bacteria is the third layer ( game of life -> bactrium -> player ) as we all have in our bodies thousands of (good nad bad) bacteria. We will die shortly withou them (the good ones for sure).
I was trying to thing out side the box: connecting "worlds" as computer science (cellular automation), biology (bacteria) and the player (play/live as long as he take care of the bacteria).
I found a gamebreaker:
http://i.imgur.com/xYwcrSm.png
Anssi@MooseflyGames